LOS ANGELES – The Lakers could have headed straight to the Bay Area after defeating the Suns on Friday night in Phoenix, but they didn’t. They could have practiced Saturday in Oakland in preparation for Monday’s game against the Golden State Warriors, but they didn’t.

They instead returned to Southern California immediately after beating the Suns. They took the day off Saturday and made plans to return to their El Segundo practice court today before boarding their chartered flight to Northern California.

At this point, it’s important to spend as much time at home as possible because the Lakers are home for only two games the rest of the month. They finish March with seven of their next nine games away from the comfortable confines of Staples Center.

“Perfect,” Lamar Odom said late Friday. “It’s the perfect schedule heading into the playoffs. You have to have a road mentality, a win-by-all-means type of mentality.

“Hopefully, we kind of started that mentality (by defeating the Suns on Friday).”

No question, the Lakers played with far more energy than they displayed during Tuesday’s victory over the Toronto Raptors. They weren’t sharp at times when it came to executing their game plan against the Suns, but their emotion carried them to a win.

After playing five consecutive games against Eastern Conference teams, the Lakers mostly face teams from the West the rest of the way. All but two of their final 16 regular-season games are against teams from their conference.

“You keep going,” Odom said of the Lakers’ state of mind with 16 games remaining before the playoffs. “You keep running through people.

“These teams want what we got, and that’s a championship.”

Role player

Ron Artest is averaging 11.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists in a little more than 34 minutes in 61 games. He is on pace to eclipse his career low for scoring average, which was 11.9 points while with the Chicago Bulls in 2000-01, his second NBA season.

Last season, he averaged 17.1 points with the Houston Rockets.

Artest knew his role would change dramatically when he signed a five-year, $34 million contract with the Lakers last summer. He also knew he would have a chance at winning a championship for the first time in his career.

“It’s a team game, so I don’t really care what I do,” he said. “I just want to win. Obviously, I’ve got to do some things to help my team win. When we play great and I have two points or go 0 for 5, I don’t care. I just want to win.

“That’s the only thing I’m thinking about when I’m out there.”

Facts and figures

Jordan Farmar played only 2 minutes, 54 seconds during the Lakers’ victory Friday. He aggravated his broken left little finger in the second quarter and did not return to the game after missing both shots he attempted. … The Lakers won the season series againstfrom the Suns, 3-1, for the third consecutive season.

Elliott Teaford covers the Clippers and the NBA for the Southern California News Group. He has written about hockey for the past five years and is looking forward to thawing out after so many days and nights sitting in frozen rinks. He also covered the Lakers for five seasons, including their back-to-back NBA championships in 2009 and '10. He once made a jump shot over future Utah Jazz center Mark Eaton during a pickup game in 1980 at Cypress College.

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